Hossenfeffer

Score! Found some guancale so naturally I made carbonara. Hands down one of my favourite pasta dishes.

The recipe is pretty simple (for which, read there’s nowhere to hide).

Serves 4 people.

Cooking time: about half an hour.

Ingredients:

• some guancale. I like it sliced thin so you get slivers of flavour, but some like it cubed. How much? I used about 100g.

• 500g of pasta. Spaghetti works well here, but bucatini is better.

• Egg. I like to do 1 egg yolk per person plus one whole egg per two people. So, for four, four yolks and two whole eggs.

• Black pepper. Freshly ground. More than you think.

Now some people will tell you that’s all you need (and all you’re allowed for an ‘authentic’ carbonara) but I also salt the pasta water and use some of it in the final saucing.

1. Boil a lot of salted water. Add the pasta. Cook it.

2. Meanwhile, in a heavy based pan, fry the sliced guancale (or pancetta, or if all else fails some unsmoked streaky bacon). You need something like a cast iron or enamelled Le Creuset because we need heat retention later.

3. Also meanwhile separate the eggs, loosely whisk and then start grinding black pepper and grating cheese. Grind slightly more black pepper than seems sensible and add it to the eggs. For the cheese I like to use a 50/50 mix of parmesan and pecorino. I don’t know amounts but if your pasta takes about 8 minutes then grate, stir pasta, grate, stir guancale, grate, repeat, until there’s about one minute left on your timer.

4. With one minute to go scoop up a cup of the pasta water. Then make sure your eggy cheesy peppery mixture is nicely combined.

5. When the pasta is done, turn of the heat on the guancale. Drain the pasta and then add to the guancale, tossing it until all the pasta is coated in the oil.

6. Add half the reserved pasta water to your cheeggy mixture and stir well to temper the it. Then pour into the pan with the guancale and pasta. Stir it! You want the egg to gently cook in the heat of the pan, but not scramble! So stir it, keep it moving until it’s barely saucy. Then add the rest of the reserved pasta water again and stir again until it hits a creamy but not wet consistency.

7. Serve with some more freshly ground black pepper.

No photos because you want to eat this while it’s still hot! Maybe next time.

... I mean, the boat's at the bottom of the sea, bit late to be worrying about health and safety now!

Chicken thighs marinaded overnight in:

• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ cup white wine vinegar
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ginger powder
• ½ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cooked on a joetisserie on a Kamado Big Joe 3, then taken off the skewer, given a minute or so over direct flame to give a little colour all over and chopped.

Served with:

Spicy pickled red cabbage
Tabbouleh
Zhoug
Labneh

And a sort of Greekish salad.

Bonus picture, some bay leaves harvested from my bay tree, washed and drying for later.

I dry brined the wings overnight with a simple barbecue rub (salt, pepper, paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander seed, onion powder, garlic powder, mustard powder).

I brought the Kamado up to 180'C/350'F.

I put the wings on over a deflector for about half an hour then moved them over direct heat, turning frequently, for another ten to fifteen minutes.

Then I served them for saucing to individual taste (I like Buffalo, wife likes BBQ, daughter likes plain).

I have a bunch of go-to online sources for recipes that I use, from NYT cooking (subscription required but worth it) to Serious Eats (Kenji FTW!) to BBC Good Food.

But my all time favourite online writer is Felicity Cloake who does an utterly brilliant series in The Guardian.

The premise is simple: for any given dish, she takes a bunch of recipes from various chefs and food writers, tries them all, and discusses what works and what doesn't, then publishes her best version of all of the above.

Whether it's pierogi, nettle soup, cheese empanadas, or pasta ai funghi her articles are great because you can see why she's made the decisions she has for her final recipe. You can pick and chose from the various recipes she tried.

Strongly, strongly recommended.

Dry brined then cooked low and slow (just around 100'c) for about two and a half hours (in a braising liquid made of mostly beer). Then finished over direct heat on the grill.

Then I got over excited and didn't take any more pictures.

They were ok - bought from Sainsbury's on a whim for about £5. Not that great in terms of meat/bone ratio, but good flavour.

I would gladly pay good money for re-released AC games without any of the modern day Abstergo stuff. Am I the only one? I mean, at the time it was interesting, but the modern day missions now just detract from immersion and are usually crap.

Just me or anyone else?

[Just started replaying Revelations!]

"The ancient sages said, "Do not despise the snake for having no horns, for who is to say it will not become a dragon?" So may one just man become an army."

One of my all time favourite shows from my childhood. Any one else love the rebels of the Water Margin of Liang Shan Po?